Peter A. Wallenborn, Jr. and Dolly F. Wallenborn Professor of Biomedical Ethics; Professor of Public Health Sciences; Professor of LawJ.D., Yale Law School, 1987B.A., University of North Carolina, 1984

Lois Shepherd is an expert in the fields of health law and bioethics. Her primary appointment is in the medical school’s Center for Biomedical Ethics and Humanities where she directs the center’s programs in medicine and law. She teaches courses in health care law and ethics at both the law school and the medical school.

After receiving her law degree from Yale University, where she served as a senior editor of the Yale Law Journal, Shepherd practiced corporate law for six years with the Charlotte, N.C., firm of Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson, P.A. She began her academic career in 1993 at the Florida State University College of Law. Prior to joining the UVA faculty, Shepherd was the Florida Bar Health Law Section Professor and D’Alemberte Professor of Law at Florida State.

Within the field of bioethics and law, Shepherd’s current scholarly and teaching interests are focused on legal and ethical issues at the end of life and in human subject research.

“Changing the Rules on Withdrawing Nutrition and Hydration: From “Terri’s Law” to the ‘Starvation and Dehydration’ Bill,” Florida Bar Public Interest Law Section Reporter, April 2004, at 1.“Prenatal Genetic Testing and Narrative,” with Aline Kalbian, American Journal of Bioethics 3(4):W15-W21 (2003), available at www.ajobonline.com.